===== Aphorisms, Maxims, Quotes, Sayings, Lessons =====
“Do you know, I sometimes catch myself wishing that I, too, were blind to the facts of life and only knew its fancies and illusions...that to dream and live illusions gives greater delight. And after all, delight is the wage for living. Without delight, living is a worthless act...your dreams and unrealities are less disturbing to you and more gratifying than are my facts to me.”
“I often doubt, I often doubt, the worthwhileness of reason. Dreams must be more substantial and satisfying. Emotional delight is more filling and lasting than intellectual delight; and, besides, you pay for your moments of intellectual delight by having the blues. Emotional delight is followed by no more than jaded senses which speedily recuperate. I envy you, I envy you.”
I am like a sober man looking upon drunken men, and, greatly weary, wishing he, too, were drunk.”
“Or like a wise man looking upon fools and wishing he, too, were a fool”
-- Wolf Larsen from "The Sea-Wolf" by Jack London.
"Better mad with the crowd than sane all alone".
-- Aphorism 133, "The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence" by Baltasar Gracian trans. Jeremy Robbins.
“Beginning to Think is Beginning to be Undermined.”
-- The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus.
In this world whatever is gained is gained only by Self-effort; where failure is encountered, it is seen that there has been slackness in effort...Self-effort is that Mental, Verbal and Physical Action(s)...There is no power greater than right action in the present...As is the effort so is the fruit,..What is called fate or divine will is nothing other than the [fruit of] action of self-effort of the past. The present is infinitely more potent than the past. They indeed are fools who are satisfied with the fruits of their past effort (which they regard as divine will) and do not engage themselves in self-effort now...Self-effort has a threefold root and therefore threefold fruit — an inner awakening in the intelligence, a decision in the mind and the physical action...Self-effort is based on these three: knowledge of scriptures [i.e. study of books], instructions of the preceptor [i.e. from a Master/Teacher] and one's own Effort [Mental, Verbal, Physical]...And the wise seeker knows: the fruit of my endeavors will be commensurate with the intensity of my self-effort, and neither fate nor a god can ordain it otherwise. Indeed, such self-effort alone is responsible for whatever man gets here...Fate or divine dispensation is merely a convention which has come to be regarded as truth by being repeatedly declared to be true...In this world, except a corpse, everything is active and such activity yields its appropriate result.
All achievements are dependent upon four factors: Time, Place, Action and Means [employed]. Among these Action or effort holds the key because, surely, all endeavours towards the achievement are based on action or effort...In preparation, one should abandon all habits and tendencies that are unrelated to what one wishes to achieve.
One should become aware of one’s deluded notion in which one thinks that "I belong to these objects of the world and my life depends upon them. I cannot live without them and they cannot exist without me, either" [here objects can be anything that the mind latches onto i.e. animate/inanimate/thoughts/memories/etc.]. Then by profound enquiry, one contemplates "I do not belong to these objects, nor do these objects belong to me" [i.e. the difference between the experiencer, the object experienced and the experience itself]. Thus abandoning the ego-sense through intense contemplation, one should playfully engage oneself in the [everyday] actions that happen naturally [whether due to environment or self-initiated], but with the heart and mind ever cool and tranquil. Such an abandonment of the ego-sense and the conditioning is known as the contemplative egolessness.
Live in the present, with your consciousness externalized momentarily [i.e. egolessly immersed in the current activity for however short/long a time period] but without any effort [i.e. without fixating on the outcome]; when the mind stops linking itself to the past and to the future, it becomes no-mind. If from moment to moment your mind dwells [only] on what is [currently being done] and drops it effortlessly at once [when it is done but before moving on to something else], the mind becomes no-mind, full of purity.
They who, though remaining established in equilibrium, do not let their organs function naturally as long as the body is alive, are obstinate and stubborn people. As long as there is sesame there is oil; as long as there is the body, there are the different moods also. He who rebels against the states that the body is naturally subject to, cuts space to pieces with a sword [i.e. a futile and foolish endeavour]. The equilibrium of yoga is for the mind, not for the organs of action and their states. As long as the body lasts, one should let the organs of action perform their proper function [naturally; without desire/intent/volition], though the intellect and the senses remain in a state of equanimity. Such is the law of nature, to which even the gods are subject.
-- The Yoga Vasistha translated by Swami Venkatesananda.
To Get a reputation for being suspicious and distrustful is certainly not desirable. Nevertheless, men are so false, so insidious, so deceitful and cunning in their wiles, so avid in their own interest, and so oblivious to other's interests, that you cannot go wrong if you believe little and trust less.
-- Maxim 157, Maxims and Reflections (Ricordi) by Francesco Guicciardini.
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